MILWAUKEE – Dustin Poirier was nearly choked out, then nearly finished a choke of his own, then got nearly choked out again in his 145-pound showdown with Erik Koch.

Somewhere in there, he also did enough to win a unanimous decision victory (29-28, 29-27, 29-27) in an instant contender for “Fight of the Night.”

The featherweight bout opened up main card of today’s UFC 164 event at Milwaukee’s Bradley Center. It aired on pay-per-view following prelims on FOX Sports 1 and Facebook.

The first time Poirier dropped Koch in the opening frame, he nearly got to put to sleep in a triangle choke after following Koch to the mat. Still clinging to the edges of consciousness as he pulled away, he later repaid the favor by dropping Koch again and nearly locking up a d’arce choke of his own before the round ended.

“The triangle was really close,” Poirier said after the fight. “I was gargling. I felt myself almost going out. I actually, for a split-second, felt myself losing this fight. …But I’m a fighter. I bite down and I fight.”

Poirier did just that for the next two rounds, overpowering a visibly weary Koch in the second, then surviving a late rear-naked choke attempt in the third to hold on for the decision win.

Poirier (14-3 MMA, 6-2 UFC) bounces back from his decision loss to Cub Swanson with the victory. Koch (13-3 MMA, 2-2 UFC) has now lost two straight in the octagon.

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